Publications by authors named "Kirstin Wurms"

Article Synopsis
  • A study compared pathogen susceptibility and defense gene responses among three kiwifruit cultivars: 'Hortgem Tahi', 'Hayward', and 'Zesy002'.
  • 'Hortgem Tahi' showed high susceptibility to sclerotinia but strong resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa), while 'Zesy002' was resistant to both diseases, and 'Hayward' was moderately susceptible.
  • Treatment with acibenzolar-s-methyl (ASM) increased certain defense gene expressions in all cultivars and induced resistance to Psa in 'Zesy002' and 'Hayward', but negatively impacted sclerotinia resistance in 'Zesy002', whereas methyl jas
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Article Synopsis
  • Environmental extremes like drought and flooding, exacerbated by global warming, lead to significant crop losses, highlighting the importance of understanding plant stress responses.
  • Research on potted kiwifruit plants exposed to different watering regimes showed that the abscisic acid (ABA) pathway plays a critical role in responding to water stress.
  • Findings revealed that ABA levels increased under drought conditions and certain ABA-related genes were more actively expressed in roots compared to leaves, indicating that kiwifruit plants utilize this mechanism to manage water stress.
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Latania scale insect is a pest of global significance affecting kiwifruit. The sessile insect (life stage: settled crawler-mature adult) is covered with a waxy cap that protects it from topical pesticides, so increasingly, a selection of resistant cultivars and application of elicitors are being used in pest control. Thus far, the application of a salicylic acid (SA) phytohormone pathway elicitor, acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM), has been shown to reduce insect development (as indicated by cap size) on one kiwifruit cultivar ('Hayward').

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Synthetic controls of crop pathogens are increasingly associated with harm to the environment and human health, and pathogen resistance. Pesticide residues in crops can also act as non-tariff trade barriers. There is therefore a strong imperative to develop biologically based and natural product (NP) biofungicides as more sustainable alternatives for crop pathogen control.

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An isolate of (strain = CG163) and the plant defence elicitor acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) were investigated for their ability to control leaf spot in kiwifruit caused by pv. biovar 3 (Psa). Clonal var.

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pv. (Psa) and pv. (Pfm) are closely related pathovars infecting kiwifruit, but Psa is considered one of the most important global pathogens, whereas Pfm is not.

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Both commercial and experimental genotypes of kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.) exhibit large differences in response to insect pests. An understanding of the vine's physiological response to insect feeding and its genetic basis will be important in assisting the development of varieties with acceptable levels of pest resistance.

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The kiwifruit cultivar Actinidia chinensis 'Hort16A' is resistant to the polyphagous armoured scale insect pest Hemiberlesia lataniae (Hemiptera: Diaspididae). A cDNA microarray consisting of 17,512 unigenes selected from over 132,000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) was used to measure the transcriptomic profile of the A. chinensis 'Hort16A' canes in response to a controlled infestation of H.

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Three steroidal saponins, including one new and two known compounds, were isolated from the rhizomes of Paris polyphylla Smith. One- and two-dimensional NMR, LC-MS, and interpretation of hydrolytic cleavage experiments led to the identification of the structure of the new saponin as ( 25R)-spirost-5-ene-3 beta,17 alpha-diol (pennogenin) 3- O-{ O- alpha- L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)- O-[ O- beta-xylopyranosyl-(1-->5)- alpha- L-arabinofuranosyl-(1-->4)]- beta- D-glucopyranoside}. The isolated saponins were evaluated for their antifungal activity against Cladosporium cladosporioides and Candida species and showed comparable activity to chemicals used in some commercial products.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers discovered two new C-glycosyl flavonoids, cucumerin A (1) and cucumerin B (2), in cucumber leaves that are resistant to powdery mildew fungi.
  • In addition to these new compounds, they found higher levels of several known flavonoids and acids in the resistant plants, including vitexin (3) and isovitexin (4).
  • The study highlights the importance of these compounds in the plant's defense mechanisms, suggesting they function as phytoalexins to protect against fungal infections.
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